Photo/Illutration Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki appears at a Sept. 4 news conference after the Supreme Court ruled against his prefectural government in a lawsuit regarding the relocation of a U.S. military base. (Tetsuro Takehana)

NAHA--Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki has no more legal cards to play in the prefecture's long-running battle to stop the relocation of a U.S. military base to the Henoko district of Nago.

The Supreme Court on Sept. 4 ruled against the Okinawa prefectural government, which had not given its approval for a construction design change to solidify the soft seabed off the Henoko coast.

The land reclamation work is needed to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan, also in Okinawa prefecture.

At a news conference after the Supreme Court ruling, Tamaki said there was no change in his determination to continue asking that the Henoko relocation be abandoned.

But regarding how he would respond to the ruling, the Okinawa governor only said, "We will consider what steps to take after going over the ruling contents."

In discussing what steps could be taken to stop the Henoko relocation, a Okinawa prefectural assembly member close to Tamaki said on Sept. 4, “We cannot ask the central government. Our lawsuits to courts have been turned down. There is no forum to say that something is wrong.”

There have been 13 lawsuits filed between the Okinawa prefectural government and the central government over the Henoko relocation plan.

Final rulings have been handed down in 11, including four that have been withdrawn or in which mediation has been reached. In the other seven lawsuits, Okinawa has been on the losing side in every case.

There are two other cases pending before the courts, but the possibility of the Okinawa prefectural government prevailing in either is low.

One high-ranking prefectural government official called the latest ruling “the final round.”

The latest Supreme Court ruling means Tamaki is legally obligated to approve the design change.

A source with the Okinawa chapter of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said, “It is only natural that the head of the administrative branch of the prefecture abides by the Supreme Court ruling.”

The source pointed to a past case in which the late Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga in 2016 withdrew a revocation of approval for the Henoko land reclamation work given by his predecessor after the Supreme Court upheld a high court ruling that said Onaga had overstepped his legal bounds.

But Tamaki still faces a difficult political decision because his two victories in the gubernatorial elections of 2018 and 2022 were, in large part, due to his pledge to stop the Henoko relocation.

A prefectural referendum in 2019 found about 70 percent of local residents opposed to the relocation.

A close aide to Tamaki said, “He is caught between rule of law and local public sentiment.”

If Tamaki refuses to give his approval, the central government could start the process toward issuing an administrative subrogation order to gain approval for the design change.

(This article was written by Taro Ono and Takashi Endo.)

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